MirrorLink™, promoted by the Car Connectivity Consortium, provides connectivity between a Smartphone and a vehicle's infotainment system. Using a USB, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi connection and MirrorLink™, applications on the Smartphone may be available and/or accessible via a screen on the vehicle's infotainment system. For example, applications stored and executed on the mobile device can be viewed on the infotainment system display and operated using infotainment system controls (e.g., MirrorLink™ refers to this as Virtual Network Computing or VNC).
Miracast™, a certification program associated with the Wi-Fi Alliance, defines a peer-to-peer protocol that may be used to connect a user's Smartphone to an external monitor or television, such as the infotainment system display in the vehicle. Using Wi-Fi Direct, Miracast™ then can be used stream 1080p video from the Smartphone to the display.
Thus, both MirrorLink™ and Miracast™ can be used to enable a data communication session between a Smartphone and a vehicle display where the Smartphone provides imagery data to the display for vehicle users. However in both systems, should the Smartphone enter an inactivity mode (e.g., to conserve power), the session will be terminated and, as a result, the imagery data provided by the Smartphone will cease. Thus, there is a need to preserve the session even when the Smartphone initiates the inactivity mode.